New Xbox 360 dashboard may have a major video playback problem

If you have an Xbox 360 console, you would have updated your system to Microsoft’s latest dashboard update, which added a brand new Windows Phone style ‘Metro’ interface amongst other new features. However, it has been reported this week that there may be one issue specifically linked to the new update, a problem which wasn’t apparent in the older dashboard.

The problem discovered is an issue related to video playback, as analysis provided by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry have shown evidence that video playback quality is worse after installing the new dashboard update, compared to playing videos with the older build.

Problems noted include video content being ‘forced to run at limited range RGB levels’, along with a drop in color quality, with one screenshot provided showing black colors being changed to grey. One particularly worrying aspect of this issue, is that it was apparently already discovered in the dashboard beta program, but the feedback from testers didn’t gain enough momentum it seems and were included in the final build that Microsoft released to the public.

So far, Microsoft are yet to comment on the problem, but we have a feeling they will be issuing some sort of official statement before the end of the week. Considering that this is just related to video playback though, some of you may argue that this isn’t really a major issue since it doesn’t affect gameplay in any way. If you use your Xbox 360 to watch a lot of video content though, it may become a frustrating problem.

We’ll let you know if Microsoft release a statement regarding this, but in the meantime, let us know if you have noticed the differences in video quality between the two dashboard builds as well.Is this a big deal for you or not?